Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Written Questions

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the savings to his Department from the Q&A system in the (a) 12 months and (b) five years since 4 June 2014; what additional ICT systems or improvements to existing systems his Department has introduced or plans to introduce that would not have been feasible without the Q&A system; and what assessment he has made of the extent to which the system has made it easier to answer questions from hon. Members on time.

Jo Swinson: No financial estimate of savings has been made since the introduction of the Q&A system. However, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has seen a reduction in paper usage and BIS staff no longer have to physically deliver PQ answers to hon. Members and the House authorities. These obvious savings will continue.   BIS changed its IT platform for managing PQs to eCase last summer. This would have happened regardless of the introduction of the Q&A system.

Students: Safety

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department issues guidance to higher and further education institutes on student safety during trips abroad.

Greg Clark: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not issue guidance to UK higher and further institutions on student safety during trips abroad. Higher and further education institutions are autonomous bodies, and as such each institution is wholly responsible for their own risk assessment and guidance on student safety during trips abroad.

Universal Service Obligation

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the financial sustainability of the Universal Postal Service in (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, (c) 2021-22, (d) 2022-23 and (e) after 2023.

Jo Swinson: Parliament has given Ofcom, as an independent regulator, the primary statutory duty to secure the provision of a universal postal service and to have regard for its financial sustainability.   Ofcom have a detailed monitoring and forecasting regime in place to assess the health of the universal postal service on a monthly basis and if the evidence suggests the need for a further review – which can be carried out at any given point in time - Ofcom would not hesitate to do this.

Postal Services

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether end-to-end postal providers other than the Universal Service Provider will be required to publish Quality of Service standards.

Jo Swinson: There are no plans to require postal providers other than the Universal Service Provider to publish quality of service standards.

Universal Service Obligation

Mr George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what time constraints would apply to Ofcom in conducting a review of the net cost of the Universal Service Obligation.

Jo Swinson: Section 44 of the Postal Services Act 2011 covers “Review of costs of the universal service obligations”. Section 44(10) states that “Unless directed to do so by the Secretary of State, Ofcom may not carry out a review under this section before the end of 5 years beginning with the day this section came into force.”   This means that Ofcom cannot carry out such a review before October 2016 unless directed to do so by the Secretary of State.   After October 2016 Ofcom “may from time to time review the extent (if any) of the financial burden for a universal service provider of complying with its universal service obligations” [section 44(1)].